Defensive Weapons

There are many ways to defend your home sectors, and the best way
to do it is a combination of all of them. Here are some of the 
available tools at your disposal:

1) Mines: These cost 1,000 credits each, and you can leave them 
in your sector, up to a maximum of 250 mines per sector. When
an invader enters the sector, approximately 1/2 of the mines 
present will explode, and cause about 15 damage points for each 
mine that exploded. If an invader enters your sector wher you 
have placed 250 mines, half will explode, causing the invader 
about 1,875 damage points. Please note, however, a Photon 
Torpedo fired by an invader will prevent the mines from 
exploding. Also, Ferrengi ships tend to stumble into the mines 
randomly, and set them off, wasting your mines, and angering the
Ferrengi into seeking revenge!

2) Sector Fighters: You can leave fighters in the sector in one 
of three different modes. Toll fighters will permit invaders to 
pay the toll, and drive right thru, not a good idea! Offensive 
fighters will automatically launch themselves at any intruder,
after which they will be gone. This can waste your fighters on 
a Ferrengi stumbling into the sector, which angers that Ferrengi
into seeking revenge later. The best way to deploy fighters in 
the sector is to make them Defensive. This will harmlessly keep 
the Ferrengi out at no cost you to, and if another player 
stumbles into the sector, he will have the option of retreating, 
thereby leaving your defenses intact! Therefore, sector fighters 
should ALWAYS be deployed as DEFENSIVE! If there is no planet in 
the sector, you are limited to 50,000 fighters, but if planet(s) 
are present you can leave a seemingly infinite number.


3) Navigational Hazard: Also known as NavHaz, or just Haz, this 
is asteroids and debris left over from a planet that exploded 
or a ship that was destroyed. Haz is measured in %. A 50% Haz 
means anyone entering that sector has a 50% chance of hitting
it, and if he does hit, he will suffer 500 damage. A 97% Haz 
produces a 97% chance of suffering 970 points of damage. (A 
point of damage is 1 shield or 1 fighter). Any ship that is 
destroyed by the Haz, will add an additional 1% to the existing 
Haz. Each night, during the "BBS Cleanup" or "BBS Event" some 
of the Haz will disperse, generally it'll be reduced by 3%. The 
best way to build a nice large Haz that will remain large for a 
few weeks, is to build 30 or 50 planets in a single sector, and
then use atomic detonators on 3-5 of them. This will get the Haz
started, as each planet destroyed produces 10% Haz. Then, each 
night during the "BBS Cleanup", 2 of the planets will collide (as
long as there are more than 5 planets left), and add 20% to the 
Haz. If there are only 6-12 planets in the sector, it is not 
definite that a collision will happen, but the probability goes 
up with the number of planets. Over about 12 planets, and a 
collision is pretty definite. A nice large Haz will definitely 
keep nosey competitors from snooping around, as they will lose 
970 fighters just for the privlege of entering the sector. And, 
Haz is not used up by additional ships entering. "NavHaz, the 
gift that keeps on giving!" This is an excellent way of keeping 
the competition out.


4) Tunnels: Locating your home base at the end of a string of 
sectors that has only 1 entrance, forces any invader to have to
wade through and face several sectors of all the nasty stuff you
can afford to put in his way. The longer the tunnel, the better 
it is. Most like to have tunnels be at least 5-6 sectors deep.

5) Corbomite Traps: An excellent "dirty trick". A Scout Maurader 
or a Pod can NOT ever be captured, only destroyed. Naturally, if 
the ship is loaded with Corbomite, it will explode, and 
seriously damage or kill the attacker! Maximum Corbomite is 1,500
units, which costs 1.5 million credits, and will blow 30,000 
fighters off of the attacker! The Scout or Pod need not be 
occupied for this, an abandoned ship works as well. 

6) Quasar Cannons: These are the biggest & nastiest weapon there
is. They use fuel ore on the planet, and shoot it at invading 
ships. See the section on "Planetary Defenses" for some
important considerations in setting these cannons up properly.


7) Photon Torpedos: These make an excellent defensive weapon, 
if you happen to be on-line when the bad guys start crashing 
through the walls. If a bad guy has no turns, then he's not 
going to be doing much of anything for awhile! So, if you see 
him, shoot the bugger, then laugh! You'll have until the top of 
the hour to do nasty things to him, before he can do anything 
much about it. His only safe option is if he has a planet of 
his own in the same sector, then he can land on it and the 
planet will take him out safely, even without turns. Of course, 
that also means the invasion is over for today. One neat thing,
did you know it's possible to shoot a P-Torp from inside the
citadel? Yes....anyplace where you can get a "Computer" prompt, 
and it works quite nicely from total safety inside your citadel.
You can shoot at them, and they can't shoot at you....
